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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24247135">Faithful Mistake</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midlstrit/pseuds/Midlstrit'>Midlstrit</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy XIV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst?, No beta we die like Jared 19, Patch 5.0: Shadowbringers Spoilers, Patch 5.2: Echoes of a Fallen Star Spoilers, elidibus is a bitch who doesnt fight fair, i wrote this at 3 am, other scions are mentioned but not shown, so is ardbert, then again my WoL is an idiot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 20:55:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,031</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24247135</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midlstrit/pseuds/Midlstrit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Minerva, the Warrior of Light and Darkness, has always made decisions based on her impulsive emotions.<br/>But this time, it burned like it had never done before, and it was a mistake.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Faithful Mistake</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wrote this way late at night and was inspired by something I had seen on tumblr somewhere. I've only barely developed my WoL as a character, but for a visual, she's an Au Ra Raen with blonde hair that turns pinkish at the tips. She is tiny (tol for au ra lady but still short compared to everyone else) and will kick you in the shins, and was a bard main for everything until ShB.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>This was a mistake.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Minerva knew it straight away. Her plan had been bold and reckless. It was fueled only on her anger and passion. A burning fire deep in her soul that she didn’t even think of dismissing. Like all of her plans, she acted purely on her emotions. She didn’t consult her friends, her numerous years of experience, or even a random stranger in the Crystarium. All of them would have told her that this was a bad idea.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yet she did it anyways, for she was an emotional fool. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She had thought, based on pure rage alone, that she could fight him. She believed that he was shackled in any way due to the constraint of fighting in a physical form. She was the godsdamned Warrior of Darkness! She could take on any battle that came her way with ease! She had slain Lightwardens, primals, and thousands of men without falter. She thought that all of these feats meant that she could triumph over a crippled foe.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But when she had gone to where she knew he had been hiding, she made a mistake. She had her greatsword in hand. Her armor was fine-tuned to the highest quality. Her blood was already pounding with adrenaline as she stared at the man in dark armor. But when he turned to face her, she misstepped.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When she saw his face, </span>
  <em>
    <span>his</span>
  </em>
  <span> face…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Minerva hesitated.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What if? She had thought. What if there was a chance? A singular, hairsbreadth of a chance? If she could cast Lahabrea out of Thancred, all those years ago, and leave him his own body, why couldn’t she do it here? What if there was a chance she could rip out that fused fraction of him from her own heart and put it back in its rightful place? She could give him the life he </span>
  <em>
    <span>deserved</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Give him a chance to see everything he had fought so hard for- everything he had </span>
  <em>
    <span>died</span>
  </em>
  <span> for. Everything </span>
  <em>
    <span>she</span>
  </em>
  <span> would die for?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The only way to cast out Elidibus would be to destroy the body he had so carefully stolen or reformed into a perfect replica. She couldn’t kill him permanently, but she could give them all some time. She could make it harder for him to come back, little by little, until there were no more corpses he could defile.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He had looked at her, a cold steel in his eyes. A look so similar to what she had first seen in Dravania. His grip on his axe had tightened, and Minerva’s heart ached. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn’t him. She knew that. It wasn’t him. She could feel him in her very soul, fusing together the cracks she had so carelessly created. It wasn’t him. It wasn’t. It couldn’t be.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It couldn’t be him, when he had summoned Sin Eaters to his aid. It couldn’t be him when he had used foul, dark magic that Emet-Selch hadn’t been capable of. Magical that gave him allies, and minions, and twisted the very reality around them. It couldn’t be him when he didn’t even bother with a fair fight, and instead summoned Eaters from the very depths of the Empty to fight her in his stead.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn’t Ardbert that stared down at her, eyes colder than a Coerthan winter.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You have always been a thorn in my side.” He said, his tone flat and void of any emotion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Minerva heaved air into her punctured lungs, resisting the urge to choke on the blood in her throat. The slashed from the Forgiven Rebellion had sliced through her armor after another Eater had damaged it. Her left arm was shattered by Forgiven Pedantry. She had killed them for each bruise and fracture on her body. But they had taken their toll.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where are your precious allies now?” Ar-</span>
  <em>
    <span>Elidibus</span>
  </em>
  <span> continued. “Do they even know of your foolishness?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They didn’t. Minerva had made sure that they didn’t. She had been in her room when she teleported, and had told each Scion that she would be in different locations. At the Crystalline Mean, in Fanow, at the Tower. They would spend hours searching for her then each other, only after they noticed she hadn’t come back when she said she would.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A shame, really.” His twisted voice was mocking and color. Almost as if he knew how much it made her heart ache. “It would have at least been useful to kill all of you at once.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He stepped forward. His axe, devoid of any blood, scraped on the stones and grated on her ears. Minerva tried to force her feet underneath herself and rise from her kneel, but the second she put any weight on her legs, they buckled. She collapsed onto her hands and knees, hot blood spilling from her lips. Her broken arm threatened to drop her onto the floor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>To hells with it, she thought. She had made a mistake coming here. The least she could do was look her death in the eye.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Elidibus stopped just a few fulms away from her. As Minerva slowly moved her blurry eyes upwards, she used the last bit of her strength to sit back on her haunches. Her broken armor creaked in protest, and more metal dug into her back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But she lifted her head, gasping for air, and looked into his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They weren’t the ones she knew. They were familiar, agonizingly so, but they weren’t the same. His eyes didn’t hold that kind of loathing and indifference. They didn’t have a dark undertone that writhed with power.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His eyes were soft. His eyes had been a gentle blue that held only kindness.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Elidibus curled his lip, an expression so out of place on Ardbert’s face that it made Minerva sick.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where is your precious </span>
  <em>
    <span>Mother</span>
  </em>
  <span> now, Warrior?” Elidibus growled. “Where has your loyalty taken you, if not to the jaws of death and suffering?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>To my family,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she wanted to say, but her voice was clogged with blood.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He hefted the axe over his shoulder, poised to strike. Minerva felt her heart skip a beat.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You have drowned in your faith. And now, you will die.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He swung the axe downwards.</span>
</p>
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